Additive & 3D Printing Articles, Stories & News

Andrew Dalton for enGadget: Because the materials from a 3D printer aren't the most functional, their output has largely been limited to prototyping in the past. That should change in the near future with devices like MIT's own MultiFab, which can print up to 10 different materials at a time, but it still doesn't solve the problem of how to design such complex objects. That's where the new program called Foundry, created by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory comes in.
According to MIT CSAIL, Foundry can import objects designed with traditional CAD programs like SolidWorks and then assign specific materials or properties to different parts of the object. While creating a multi-material object in the past might have required days of work and multiple 3D printers to create (assuming it was possible with existing technology at all), CSAIL says these sorts of designs can now be created in mere minutes. Rather than manufacturing a separate piece for each material in the finished product, the entire object can now be printed in one fell swoop. Cont'd...

Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq:SSYS), the 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions company, announces that leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus has standardized on its ULTEM™ 9085 3D printing material for the production of flight parts for its A350 XWB aircraft.

Ian Allison for International Business Times: Genesis of Things is a new "smart manufacturing" company which leverages intellectual horsepower from members of the Ethereum community.
This young company, established and launched just a few weeks before DevCon2 in Shanghai, has produced a tangible proof of concept in the form of a set of 3D printed titanium cufflinks inscribed with a QR code and bearing the insignia of the Ethereum logo.
Genesis of Things combines 3D printing, blockchain and IoT in a virtuous, futuristic flow that re-imagines manufacturing processes. The company is in stealth right now and more details about how it operates and possible use cases will be released going forward.
It should be repeated that the cufflinks pictured are a proof of concept; this is not a commercial product but rather a limited edition to show the potential of the technology. Cont'd...

The most popular and widespread technology is FDM (fused deposition modeling), known also as FFF (fused filament fabrication). The majority of companies apply this technology in numerous printers, both of "amateur" and of "professional" classes.

Adam Conner-Simons for MIT News: Anyone who’s watched drone videos or an episode of “BattleBots” knows that robots can break — and often it’s because they don’t have the proper padding to protect themselves.
But this week researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(CSAIL) will present a new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements — and that could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more.
The team’s “programmable viscoelastic material” (PVM) technique allows users to program every single part of a 3D-printed object to the exact levels of stiffness and elasticity they want, depending on the task they need for it. Cont'd...

From the Hasso Plattner Institute:
Recently, researchers started to engineer not only the outer shape of objects, but also their internal microstructure. Such objects, typically based on 3D cell grids, are also known as metamaterials. Metamaterials have been used, for example, to create materials with soft and hard regions.
So far, metamaterials were understood as materials—we want to think of them as machines. We demonstrate metamaterial objects that perform a mechanical function. Such metamaterial mechanisms consist of a single block of material the cells of which play together in a well-defined way in order to achieve macroscopic movement. Our metamaterial door latch, for example, transforms the rotary movement of its handle into a linear motion of the latch. Our metamaterial Jansen walker consists of a single block of cells—that can walk. The key element behind our metamaterial mechanisms is a specialized type of cell, the only ability of which is to shear.
In order to allow users to create metamaterial mechanisms efficiently we implemented a specialized 3D editor. It allows users to place different types of cells, including the shear cell, thereby allowing users to add mechanical functionality to their objects. To help users verify their designs during editing, our editor allows users to apply forces and simulates how the object deforms in response... (project homepage)

Held in conjunction with UBM's prestigious Anaheim event are the 16th annual Golden Mousetrap Awards. Through the Awards program, UBM recognizes companies, technologies, and individuals that are driving progress and innovation in product design and manufacturing.

Mouser Electronics Inc., a leading global distributor of electronic components, today announced the final call for entries for the exciting and imaginative International Space Station (I.S.S.) Design Challenge, part of Mouser's award-winning Empowering Innovation Together™ program. The contest is open until midnight (Central Time) Oct. 7, 2016.

• 3D printing now is delivering time and cost reductions of up to 90 percent, throughout the Schneider Electric manufacturing process, including injection molds, manufacturing tool prototypes and product prototypes
• The French multi-national is also exploring the 3D printing of spare parts and low volume part production

Tony Oran for Quality Digest: In an age where popular technology careers are only seen as attractive if they are based in Silicon Valley or offered by the latest and greatest startup companies, the manufacturing industry must make changes to attract bright and talented Millennials. The numbers clearly illustrate this need.
Baby Boomers currently make up a large part of the manufacturing workforce. With many workers expected to retire in the coming decade, there will be nearly 3.5 million jobs to fill, according to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute. Millennials have now overtaken Baby Boomers as the most populous generation, making them one of the largest pools of talent for employers. Quantity, however, does not always translate to quality.
Employers are struggling to find qualified workers to fill available openings, and it’s a trend companies are seeing regardless of sector. Cont'd...

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